Phantom of Steel
by kujikiri21
Summary: Henge. Transformation. Able to change your form into someone or something else. An E-rank technique. Considered almost useless at the higher echelons of power. Let's see a fox turn that sort of thinking upside down.


**Phantom of Steel**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 1: A Thought Takes Shape

_Age 11_

_2 Years and 6 Months from Chuunin Exams_

Beside a small creek in a small wood, Naruto sat with a frown on his whiskered cheeks.

Today had not been the best of days for him. Yet again, he had been sent out of class, accused of disrupting the rest of the students from their learning, meaning that he missed out on the entirety of the lesson and the contents of it. Contents that were new and just being introduced to his class at the Academy. Meaning that he was now behind the class even more than before and still had to do the homework assigned by the sneering prick of a teacher without the knowledge their beloved sensei was supposed to impart to their pupils. As it was, he would have to try and complete the essay with information only from the beaten and battered and torn, with missing pages and blotted text, textbook he had managed to find in the trash behind the Academy one day.

He wouldn't be able to get into the library to get some degree of help either, as he was always being chased out, accused of making too much noise and disturbing the patrons even if he hadn't made a peep. Bookstores were out as well as they either refused to sell to him or jacked up their prices so high that he would have to go hungry for a month to be able to get them on an orphan's stipend. The teachers would also refuse to help, citing that they were either too busy or that he should have paid more attention in class.

While this was not an unusual occurence, much to his dissatisfaction, he was starting to get beyond sick of it!

He angrily dashed his rough palm against the water, making the small brook dance and ripple even more than the slow current that moved it along it's ever winding path.

Almost more than anything in this world, he wanted to become a shinobi, but he couldn't do that if he didn't pass the Academy, and he couldn't do that if the damned teachers kept keeping him form learning.

His scholastic skills were barely adequate. His reading and writing skills were not the best due to the lacklustre, at best, tutoring he had when he was younger. The kanji still confused him more often than not. His essays and tests, when he was able to complete them, were, without fail, marked in red as a Failure.

He fared better in the physical portion of the curriculum. His endless stamina let him push himself harder than the others could. His weapon skills with kunai and shuriken, particularly in throwing, were at least semi-decent. It was pretty much repetition, repetition until the muscles were ingrained with the skill. His taijutsu, by contrast, was absolutely abysmal, as he regularly got steam rolled in the spars with the other students. Their own crisp and purposeful movements trumping his wild brawling, even if he was a degree faster. Then again, what other outcome could he expect. The teachers ignored him utterly when they all went through the katas for the standard Leaf style, never correcting him, and others weren't willing to spar with him outside of the Academy.

Then there was his ninjutsu.

He growled angrily to himself.

No matter what he tried, they just didn't seem to work!

His leaf spinning exercise was more comparable to leaf destroying as his chakra surged from body and overloaded the leaf, causing it to become as ash. His attempts at Bunshin were so pathetic as to not even be funny. Kawarimi? He was lucky not to tear his clothes off in the transition.

Henge however, might just be another story for him, at least he hoped so.

He glanced at the battered text book beside him, open to a full page spread on the Henge no Jutsu.

"Let's see," he mumbled to himself, a small finger gliding down the page as he struggled to interpret the kanji. "Seals are a Dog, Boar and Ram. Instructions? Continously expel chakra...keep image in mind at all times. Creates a chakra field around the user that warps the concepts of form and matter and allows interaction with the world...Warning: Easily dispelled by impact due to complexity of retaining focus on image...Second Warning: Assuming forms that are smaller than one's own self, while possible, are extremely difficult." The whiskered young man who had not yet reached his teens blinked slightly in confusion, "And this is an E-rank?" He said bewildered, trying to understand why such an obviously complex technique would be expected to be learnt by Academy students.

It, however, cemented his belief that ninja were really cool.

He frowned to himself as he looked at the seals, twisting his hands in the depicted combination again and again. It was smacked into the heads of all academy students to always get their hand seals down first before performing a jutsu. A flubbed seal in jutsu could end up having potentially dangerous and unpredictable effects and had killed many a ninja over the years.

He worked his hand through the seals one more time. Then he did it with his eyes closed. Once. Twice. Thrice.

Now he was prepared.

Still seated, he thought about what he wanted to turn into, smacking his mind to alertness as he attempted to. Something easy and simple at first would probably be the best bet.

He glanced down at his jumpsuit. As much as he loved the colour orange, he was curious about what it would look like if it were blue.

He slowly weaved the signs, channeling his chakra as he had been taught towards his hands, while also keeping his mind on the colour blue. A sky blue. Digging into his memories and overlaying that image of the colour, which he simultaneous plastered on a memory of his jumpsuit.

_Dog...Boar...Ram..._

_"_Henge no jutsu!" The young boy shouted, his form abruptly engulfed in a cloud of jutsu discharge smoke.

Naruto felt the way that his chakra extended out of his body, like an extra limb, before engulfing him completely in it's embrace, wrapping him up like a sheet, close and tight.

Naruto couldn't help but be slightly awed at what he felt. He actually clearly felt the jutsu form. A big difference compared to his other attempts at ninjutsu. His 'grip' over the other jutsu he knew was weak at best. Performing them was like trying weave gossamer threads of spider silk. You knew you had the material to use but you could barely feel what you were doing with it and made it easy to either break or make a mistake.

The Henge, on the other hand, felt like he was working with rope. Easy to see, a solid presence and mistakes were easily detected in it's use. It rather pleased him. But there was still the last test for the jutsu to make him happy.

Was he able to perform it correctly?

Leaning out over the brook, looking into his reflection on the surface of the deceptively still looking water, he then grinned, his mood changing completely.

His face broke out into laughter, mirrored in the water by sky blue jumpsuit wearing reflection.

_Age 11 1/2_

_Two Years to Chuunin Exams_

"Come back here, you brat!" Roared a Chuunin covered in puke green paint, his orange covered compatriot not a step behind him, and both of them furious as they chased the nimble cause of their predicament across the rooftops and through the streets of Konoha.

"Don't wanna!" Called back their whisker cheeked prey, the brat's grin of mischief there for all to see as he ran from the Chunnin. Somehow, the brat was easily outpacing the two shinobi, much to their humiliation and, begrudging, respect.

It wasn't often that an Academy Student was able to get the drop on a real shinobi.

The preteen suddenly turned sharply, darting down a side alley off of the street.

"Idiot!" The green painted Chuunin said with slightly malicious glee, "I know that alley. There is only one entrance and exit, and that is through where he entered!"

"Revenge is sweet!" The Orange wearing shinobi said with an almost identical grin of his own as they both slowed down, not needing to make haste to capture the little brat that had dared to humiliate them. Their gaits became more of a stalking prowl as they wordlessly split off, one coming from the left hand side and the other the right. A classic pincer move.

"Come out, little brat!" The Orange one called softly, his voice echoing the dark alley that was no doubt filled with refuse and squeaking vermin, "we know you in there~" he giggled wickedly, "and there is only one way out."

"-And that's past us," the green one finished, cracking his knuckles and massaging his neck in preparation for a small scuffle.

The two shinobi stepped further into the alley, only to halt.

Staring at them, with small piles of trash, some of which wriggled and squeaked, was as one of the Chunnin mentioned, a dead end alley.

An alley that was devoid of human life.

"What the hell?" One of the shinobi breathed, shock and puzzlement on his features, "where the hell is he? Where could he have gone?" His comrade was just as stunned and bewildered.

As the two shinobi scratched their heads in puzzlement, they never noticed a small rodent, with bright blue eyes, creep through a crack in the alley's back wall, a chuffing snigger on it's whiskered lips.

_Age 11 3/4_

_Twenty-One Months to Chuunin Exams_

_"_Tell your little brother that I wish him well!" A friendly bookstore owner called to the tall, dark haired elder teenage girl with vibrant blue eyes.

"No problem!" The girl laughed, "I think the little brat will need it if he wants to pass the Academy." She smiled at the attendant warmly with her slightly mischevious eyes, "though I will tell him to get his own textbooks next time. Honestly," the girl said with a roll of her beautiful, even in the female attendant's opinion, eyes, "he should know better than to practice Katon jutsu near a pile of paper. Mother near walloped him one when she came home to find singe marks on the walls."

The attendant laughed, "Boys will be boys," she said with deep amusement, remembering the antics her own boys had got up over the years. Thankfully, they had grown out of that phase and were now respectable businessmen in their own trades.

The girl laughed brightly as she left the store, the bell chime of her voice making passersby smile themselves.

"Hmmm," the lady behind the counter said, "Such a nice girl."

A few streets away, the plain faced woman stepped off of the main road, disappearing from view, and walked through a dark alley instead. The click of her heels faded away to be replaced by the slap of sandals as she traced her familiar path.

By the time she reached the other end of the alley, stepping out on to the road seamlessly, the plain faced woman with sapphire eyes had vanished to be replaced by a shorter male blonde with spiky hair and whiskered cheek, who was smiling as he hefted the bag of books he had just bought.

"Like taking candy from a baby," he chuckled to himself, ignoring the slightly annoyed looks from those around him. Maybe now he could actually learn something in the Academy and read more than he used to.

He idly wondered if these manga were all they were cracked up to be?

_Age 12_

_Eighteen Months to Chuunin Exams_

Naruto, clad in his blue jumpsuit, carefully examined the kunai in his left hand and the shuriken in his right.

Each of them were plain examples of their respective types. A six pointed star like shuriken and a standard four edged kunai. Nothing embellished or special about them. No special materials used in their making nor any special engravings. Just simple utilitarian weapons.

His right hand flicked out, sending the contents of the hand soaring and spinning in a well practiced throw.

_Chunk_!

The shuriken's flight terminated by embedding itself in the trunk of a tree in the training ground.

Naruto's eyebrow rose in slight question, as if unable to comprehend what he had seen.

His left hand raked the air, and the target, in front of him, the weapon he held carving a gouge in the wooden post briefly before Naruto left it embedded there, his other brow raised in surprise and shock as well.

His hands then twisted into a familiar hand seal. One of release.

"Kai!" He spoke, softly but sharply, as he spiked his chakra, his hand seal releasing it in an invisible rippling wave. A wave that disturbed anything within it's reach.

His sky blue jumpsuit shimmered back to it's original orange as the Henge around it was released.

However. Naruto's eyes were only for what happened to the two weapons as the wave struck them.

Both of the steel objects poofed into smoke, and the sound of a couple of light objects falling onto the grass reached Naruto's sensitive ears. When the cloud dissipated, he was left with a puzzle he was determined to solve.

In the place of the weapons he just used were two empty spots, as if the weapons had just vanished. And at the foot of the tree and the training post respectively, each sat an empty ramen cup.

"...Interesting," Naruto mused as he eyed the gouges in the wood of the training post.

_Age 12 1/2_

_One Year until Chuunin Exams_

Naruto sat at the desk in his small apartment, burning the midnight oil, as he wrote down the results of his own experiments.

"Entry #241," he spoke aloud as he wrote in a thick black leather journal underneath the dim light of the table lamp that was perched on a stack of books, each of them in some form related to either mineral sciences, metallurgy, lapidary, sculpture, wood carving or myths and legends with a book on beginner to intermediate Fuuinjutsu thrown in for good measure. "Regarding the Stability Solution. Having had success with physical to physical conversion, I have attempted Manifestation through pure chakra. My theory that the legendary, bordering on mythical, Rikudo Sennin's ability 'Creation of All Things' is based on, or perhaps was, more likely, _the base_ from which Henge no Jutsu was derived, has shown to be credible, if not proven, as I, briefly, 'created' a plain steel kunai from my chakra and will alone, without using physical material as a temporary anchor for it's continued existence. Despite the seemingly simple creation, the consumption of chakra needed to do so was far from 'cost effective', consuming approximately five percent of my complete chakra reserves, and the creation sadly fading away less than five minutes after I ceased channeling chakra into it's form, thus, despite the brief manifestation, the experiment can only be deemed, at best, a partial success that is closer to failure.

"The cause of this odd result is, as yet, unknown. A possible hypothesis could be due to the differences and conflicts between the 'Laws' that govern the 'Spiritual' and those that preside over the 'Physical'.

"Despite the cost, and the eventual dissipation, I am pleased with the results. The fact that I even partially succeeded at all means I am taking a step in the proper direction, and is a long stride forward to reach my eventual goal."

Naruto paused briefly for a moment, the pen halting it's scribbling, as an idea struck him.

"Mental note," he wrote down, his voice suddenly fevered and excitement lacing it, "If the Henge has such hidden, powerful and versatile applications, a mere E-rank jutsu, could the others of the Three have similar hidden applications?"

_Age 13 1/4_

_3 Months until Chuunin Exams_

"Shit!" Naruto swore as he ducked another kick from his emo teammate.

The spar between them both had almost been completely one sided so far. With the restriction of not being allowed to use Shadow Clones in this taijutsu only spar, he had been on the defensive from the word go. His own rough brawling style, while unpredictable, was no real match for the well trained and experienced form of the Uchiha's style.

From the crouch, Naruto used his legs muscles to throw himself backwards, out of range of Sasuke when he had gone in for a stomp that would have had the fox boy (and hadn't that been a hell of a revelation! Fucking Mizuki!) seeing stars for a week, all the while a condescending smirk adorned the last loyal remnant of the Uchiha clan.

"You can't run forever, Dobe," Sasuke drawled out to his (incompetent) opponent during the brief lull in the fight. The pink and grey haired spectators watching on quietly. Well, the grey haired one was, his single eye focused critically on the battle, and was keeping the pink haired girl from cheering on one of the combatants.

Naruto growled softly to himself from where he crouched, like a wild beast ready to fight or flee. This spar wasn't going well. The Uchiha was too fast, too skilled, for him in his current state. He might have been able to win if he pulled out his _real _trump cards, which were not the Shadow Clones as his team might believe, but he was wary of doing so, especially against the bastard he was now facing.

Those Crimson Monkey Marbles that bastard called eyes were utter bullshit in his opinion and there was no way in the world he was going to let the bastard steal the results of his own blood, sweat and tears.

A thought flickered in his head for a brief moment, before he grinned inwardly. It might be a gamble, the exact powers of the Teme's bloodline were still a bit of a mystery, but he might just be able to eke out a win or, if not, at least get a good hit in.

Without another thought he charged forward, running low and his hands like claws, a beast about to pounce of it's unfortunate prey.

"Idiot," he heard the comment come from the direction of his opponent, along with the sigh of exasperation from his lazy 'sensei', who he thought didn't really merit the title, he hadn't truly taught them anything except, maybe, tree walking, shinobi customs and a few team oriented exercises (which they had failed more often than not). Obviously they thought he had made a dumb decision.

Let them think that. It just made his self assigned job to knock the Uchiha off of his pedestal easier.

He twitched his left hand a couple of times in odd ways, just before he came within arm's length of Sasuke, balling his right fist as he did so. He could see the way that Sasuke going to counter, an arrogant one hand capture of his fist along with a counter blow to his gut, which would likely take the wind out of him and leave him vulnerable enough for the bastard to end the match.

But not today.

He released the chakra he had been building, sending it invisibly soaring towards Sasuke, only for it to 'grasp' the very air just before the Uchiha and then _pulled._

Crack!

The meaty sound of his fist meeting the Uchiha's jaw was heard loudly not a split second later as he now stood almost nose to nose with the bastard, deep within the clan scion's own guard, staring into Uchiha's shocked and then blank eyes as the bastard lost consciousness and was thrown to the ground from the strike.

There was silence in the clearing, save for Naruto's own laboured and strained breaths.

'What the hell?!' The collective thought of the spectators from the surprise ending to the match.

Naruto ignored the stares and just focused on keeping his strained breathing even, despite the way his ribs felt bruised like someone had been stomping on them for an hour, and keep the satisfied grin off of his face.

Experiment a Success!

_Age 13 1/2 (Present)_

_Chuunin Exams_

_Second Task Preliminaries_

BEEP!

**Kiba Inuzuka vs Naruto Uzumaki**

"Yahoo!" Cried Kiba, "Our turn to fight now, Akamaru!"

Akamaru barked happily from his perch on his human partner's head as the excited young Genin leapt over the rail and landed easily on the floor of the battlefield below.

In contrast to the Inuzuka's enthusiasm, Naruto walked calmly around the balcony to get to the steps below.

"Hmm," a lady with red eyes hummed in approval, "you better be ready, Kakashi. Uzumaki doesn't stand a chance against Kiba."

"Oh?" Questioned Kakashi, raising an eyebrow over his single revealed eye, "We will just have to see then. My student may just surprise you."

"Hurry up, dead last!" Called the canine like shinobi towards the sedately moving form of the whiskered ninja, "we haven't got all day!"

"Well sorry, Poochy," drawled Naruto as he set his sandalled feet on the floor of the ring, "I didn't know this was a race."

Kiba narrowed his eyes growled at the casual insult.

"Are the contestants -cough- ready?" Asked the ill-looking proctor, halting Kiba's possible response.

"One moment," Naruto said, surprising everyone, "Since this tournament is about showing our skills to possible clients...I think I will show my hand," he grinned at everyone's confused looks as he placed his hands in a simple release hand seal. "And it is _Wild. _Kai!"

A plume of smoke erupted around him, the common side effect of a dispelling Henge.

Everyone looked at the plume in confusion, waiting for it to fade. What had the Orange wearing shinobi meant?

* * *

><p>Hiruzen Sarutobi watched the plume of smoke dissipate, his eyes narrowed in thought.<p>

As a Kage, it was his duty to defend the village of Konoha, and he had been proud to do so, despite the sacrifices, personal and professional, that he had to make to ensure that the village he protected survived and thrived.

But even the best of men tire and he had handed the duty to a younger man, one that had proven himself worthy enough, wise enough, powerful enough, to do the job and had settled himself to slowly withdraw from the heart of the village scene, more than willing to retire and spend the rest of his life looking after his family.

Then the Fox came.

He had lost a great deal that night, his beloved wife among them, but when the dust had settled he had been forced to take the helm of the ship once more.

It had been difficult, his strength was no longer what it once was, his mind was no longer had the knife edge that had cut down his foes without him even drawing a weapon. But it was the best the village had at the time.

Still, he had fallen into old patterns after a while and the village began to thrive again a few years after the disaster, smiles once more on the faces of his shinobi and the civilians.

Except on one face.

Naruto Uzumaki. A young boy with a terrible burden. He had tried his best to help the boy, he truly did, but he was not omnipotent nor could he control the thoughts and actions of everyone in the village, nor would he want to even if he could. Freedom was a powerful force and those that tread on another's freedom rarely earned their respect, only contempt and hatred.

The Uchiha clan had been an example of this, after the Fox.

He tried his best to keep the boy stable in mind and heart, trying to show him that there was more to the world than glares and pain. He wasn't entirely sure he had succeeded, but he could still hope.

Stable or not though, he had noted a small change in the young boy a little after he was eleven. His actions became more veiled, like he was trying to keep a big secret to himself. The Kage had also noted an improvement in the boy's work from the Academy, something that he looked over with the lad when they both had the time, like a grandfather helping his grandson, to a point. Strangely though, in the tests, he always seemed to get the same marks, always keeping his grades a certain level and never deviating. An odd occurrence and he had kept an eye on it, thinking that the teachers there were deliberately marking the boy down. Thankfully, for the teachers, that hadn't been the case.

It still didn't add up to how Naruto had been acting though.

As tempted as he was to order his loyal shinobi to investigate, to,use the orb in his office, he withheld the command and the desire. The lad had suffered enough, more than most in fact. He had earned his own privacy from the watchful eyes of the village.

And so he watched.

The boy became more cunning, but never malicious, and the Kage could tell that the boy's horrid chakra control had improved, if only a little, over time. He had also, surprisingly, asked him about materials that could hold chakra or, more specifically, store chakra very well.

He had answered easily enough, there was no harm to it though he was unsure why the young boy had asked that specific question.

The answer had been wood, gems and stone. Each of these materials stemmed from the earth, a stabilizing element, and could this be used as containers for chakra. Metal, while also stemming from the earth element, was actually a bit different in that it couldn't hold chakra very well but one could channel chakra through it fairly well, though doing so would cause the material to degrade with every use unless it was the special iron that was mined in Iron Country.

He still wasn't sure what came of the answer to that question.

He also noticed tiny improvements and changes in his surrogate grandson's battle style. Small nuances that made him wonder, but he still didn't pry. The boy still showed the same loyalty and love for him and that was all that was needed for him to know that the lad wasn't going off the deep end.

He hadn't seen much of Naruto, aside from mission assignments, after the debacle caused by Mizuki. He had taken upon himself to sit the lad down and explain the truth of the situation after the entire clusterfuck had come to an end. Surprisingly, the youth had taken it far better than he originally thought and had thanked him for the attempt to protect him, even if it had failed more than he would have liked.

He had been quite relieved. He was still the same Naruto, even if he was hiding secrets.

And somehow, the old Hokage had the feeling that those secrets were going to come to light, here and now.

And it would be mindblowing.

* * *

><p>Kiba eyed dissipating smoke with disdain.<p>

"A Henge?!" Snarled Kiba, irritated and insulted, though he thought he should have expected something like that from the dead last, "your wasting time just dispelling a Henge?! What's wrong? Your jacket more burnt than it looked before?"

The response to his taunts was a loud laugh as the smoke finally vanished, revealing the laughing form of Uzumaki. Though a very strange one to Kiba.

"If only you knew Kiba," the dead last smiled, his shoulders shaking and rattling with their burden, "If only you truly knew."

The orange jumpsuit had vanished from the whiskered boy's frame. It was now replaced by a pair of dark ballooning pants, something he had only seen on a courtier of the Fire Lord that his team had escorted once. His top half only had a set of large, the size of two clenched fists brought together, wooden prayer beads wrapped diagonally over his torso, the entire right hand side of said torso almost bare to the world and his upper left half, including the shoulder and pectoral, clad in a tight fitting crimson sleeve that extended to the bracelet that was an odd combination of wooden beads and thick silver, which had a partner on his right wrist. His forehead protector was now worn like Hinata's own, around his neck. And to top it all off, around his waist were, in addition to the standard shuriken and kunai pouches, a couple of other pouches attached to a thick, vibrant Orange (it deserved the capital. It really was that bright!) sash with the ends hanging off his right hip and had two wooden icons hanging from it in turn that Kiba couldn't make out the designs on.

It was a singularly unique garb and Kiba wasn't quite sure to make of it. Though, he glanced at the bare part of his opponent's torso with a slight bit of apprehension, he hadn't been aware that Naruto was that muscular underneath the jumpsuit. Those baggy things obviously could hide quite a lot.

"That's better," his opponent commented, cracking his neck slightly to loosen it up, as if just awakening from a long sleep, "I haven't been in these for a while," he rolled his clad shoulder a little, "feels good though." The whiskered boy hopped in place for a moment, allowing Kiba to see that his feet were now bare of foot wear but straps attached to his pants wrapped around the soles of his feet in addition to having something covering the top of his feet but leave the toes free to move.

The whiskered boy grinned at him as he stopped hopping in place, "Ready to fight, Kibble?"

That snapped Kiba out of his daze, "Watch it Uzumaki," he growled, placing his partner on the ground beside him, ready to fight beside the canine. "Just because you have a new outfit doesn't mean you are any better."

"Then I'll just prove it to you that I _am _better," Naruto responded. The whiskered blond glanced at the patient and somewhat surprised proctor, "I'm ready now."

The proctor nodded, "Preliminary Match between Kiba Inuzuka and Naruto Uzumaki. Uzumaki, are you ready?"

Naruto just nodded.

"Inuzuka, are you ready?"

"Bring it on," Kiba growled as he crouched, ready to leap and pounce.

The proctor was silent for a moment, the quiet making both of the combatants strain and wait for the signal.

"Begin!" Yelled the Proctor as he leapt back out of range.

* * *

><p>Kakashi watched the match closely, even if he hid it behind his laid back demeanour.<p>

His blonde student had always been a mysterious one, at least to someone who looked 'underneath the underneath'.

Many just saw him as the fool that he conveyed to one and all with his loud voice and equally loud clothing colours. Those ones wrote him off as fool and an idiot that wouldn't survive more than a year in the Shinobi world.

Others saw the child that just wanted acceptance, to no longer be alone in the crowd. One that had a kind heart and an indomitable will that burned like fire in the night, lighting the way for those who followed after him as the passionate words he spoke moved their hearts and minds.

Kakashi, however, had caught glimpses of something beyond that.

It was only little things. Individually meaning almost nothing but, when put together, made for a fractured and confusing image.

The first sign had been that he saw the Uzumaki scion reading what he swore was a text on geology and chemistry at one point, which had really conflicted with his initial views of the kid.

He had then kept a casual eye on him for other possible discrepancies.

Here and now though, it seemed that those differences were finally being revealed for all to see.

Hopefully it would be interesting.

* * *

><p>Both of the boys leapt back, following procedures ingrained into them at the Academy. Never go for the kill first. Test the opponent. Find a weakness. Exploit the weakness. Destroy the enemy.<p>

Kiba dug into his pouch, a handful of shuriken then sent whirling in the direction of his opponent, even as his other hand whipped out a kunai.

Naruto, in response, to the surprise of many, simply tore one of the large wooden prayer beads from the bandolier that bisected across his torso and held it front of him, as if it were a shield against the oncoming barrage of sharp objects.

Kiba went to say something insulting, thinking that the idiot had truly slipped off the edge if he thought that a simple wooden ball would stop the flying weaponry, only for the words to die in his mouth as he saw what happened next.

Something that was shared by the other people on the balcony.

* * *

><p>"Baka!" Yelled Sakura, her body still beaten and bruised from her tied match with Ino, but conscious enough to watch her teammate, "Move!"<p>

Naruto just seemed to ignore her, the idiot, and simply held the large prayer bead in front of him in one hand, his palm facing his opponent.

Then she received the shock of her life when she saw Naruto's other hand come up beside it, twisted into an odd configuration that seemed somehow familiar, glowing slightly with chakra.

Asuma Sarutobi, Sensei of Team Ten, whistled lightly, "That's a lot of chakra that he's packing. What's he going to do with it though?"

"It's not what he is going to do," spoke up the Hyuuga on the creepy spandex clad Jounin's team, his voice showing a degree of shock and surprise as his eyes were activated, veins bulging at the temples, "it what he _has _done," the looks of puzzlement from those that surrounded him forced him to elaborate, "the way he twisted his hand and the way the chakra is being channeled into it means only one thing," his eyes showed a degree of slight respect as he watched the match, "it's a hand seal."

Eyes widened all around at that revelation.

* * *

><p>"<strong>Tama: Tate<strong>," whispered Naruto under his breath, pushing his chakra into the receptive material of the wood (far more than he would have actually liked. His chakra control was completely out of whack at the moment. Luckily, most of his base techniques were fairly forgiving in the control department. A necessity even with his better, but still horrid, control.), an image in his mind transmitted to the material via his chakra, making it shift and swim and change, all in less than a moment.

_Ping! Pin-Ping! Ping!_

The result was swift enough to form in time to block the sharp throwing stars.

He then heard the surprised exclamations from above and grinned a bit. If they were surprised by this simple trick, then he couldn't wait for their reactions to his bigger ones.

He released his right hand from the seal, it being no longer and, in a smooth movement, dipped into his shuriken pouch and launched his own handful at his opponent even as he kept the wooden bead turned steel shield in front of him.

Then, after waiting a moment, let his shield bearing left arm hang at his side, the tapered end of the tear drop facing the floor, and charged his opponent, his right hand held in a odd claw like shape.

* * *

><p>'<em>What the hell?!' <em>Thought Kiba as he looked at the supposed dead last in astonishment.

He had expected the dead last to have dodged the missiles he had thrown, the standard strategy for dealing with said projectiles taught at the Academy.

He _hadn't _expected the dead last to somehow summon a large steel shield to block them instead.

It was completely unlike any shield he had seen before (not that he had seen many. A shield wasn't exactly a tool many, if any, shinobi used. Not enough utility or versatility and far too cumbersome.).

It looked like an upside down teardrop, or maybe a fang. With a wider rounded curve at the top, the plain, unadorned and burnished steel descended and tapered to a sharp point at the bottom, making it possibly able to attack if used correctly. And in it's centre, sunk into the metal like a gem in a setting, rested the wooden bead that Naruto had been holding before it's appearance.

Despite the looks of it, it was clear that it was a well made piece of equipment, judging by the fact that his thrown shuriken now lay on the ground of the battlefield after having struck the shield, and not leave even a scratch.

Where did the dead last get it from though? He hadn't seen any summoning or storage scrolls like the bun haired girl before had and he seriously doubt that the blonde idiot had seals tattooed on himself, it was dangerous and _very_ expensive procedure to get done.

Kiba wagered even odds it had something to do with the wooden bead the dead last had pulled off of his chest.

But that wasn't his biggest concern right now. The incoming shuriken were. If only just.

The hand that held his kunai flicked out, almost casually, batting the projectiles away.

He was more than skilled enough to fend off the idle and probing attacks from such weapons.

He wasn't sure about Naruto's charge though. The bastard was faster than he looked, covering the distance between them in a quick spurt of speed. Too close to leap away safely unless he wanted that shiny point of the odd shield or Naruto's right hand to either take a chunk out of him or grasp him to pull him into a wrestle.

And considering the rippling muscles he had seen on the Naruto when he had changed his clothes...he wasn't willing to let him get his hands on him. Naruto had always been a scrapper, even in the Academy, and his grappling skills were arguably the best in the class.

So, lacking any other viable options, he lashed out with his kunai, aiming to get him dodge and back off, just to give him room.

The bastard didn't even pause, simply the shield up like it was a simple reed cane, the edge of the defensive equipment striking close to wear the kunai's diamond shaped blade met the bandage wrapped haft, knocking his hand up and away even as the kunai was sent flying.

Then came the hammerblow.

Kiba saw Naruto's right hand coming in for a claw-like palm strike, aiming directly for his chest and sought to defend. He knew he was fast enough and, even unbalanced by the shield disarming, his other hand swept in to knock the strike away.

Then something happened.

He wasn't sure what exactly happened, only feeling and seeing the effects.

He saw that right hand twitch in an odd shape, different from the one before when he had summoned that shield, and his nose scented a flare of chakra.

Then things went really strange.

The right hand abruptly accelerated unnaturally mid-strike, throwing off the timing of his defence and letting the strike blow through his guard like it wasn't even there. Instead of parrying the strike away, he ended up taking directly on the chest.

The breath whooshed out of him, his body bending forward and his mouth wide in shock and gasping surprise, before he was launched backwards through the air.

Then the pain struck.

His world went a blinding white for a moment, pain spidering across his whole ribcage, before colour returned to the world and he heard the whistling in his ears as he flew low across ground from the force behind the strike.

Even as his ribs protested, he flipped mid-air, slamming his sandals into the stone floor and applying chakra, creating enough friction to bring him to a halt. Once done, he fell heavily to a knee and began coughing and gagging, trying to somehow get his breath back.

'_What the hell did the dead last hit me with?!' _He thought between coughs.

* * *

><p>Gai frowned. Young Naruto's last strike didn't make any sense.<p>

As a master of taijutsu, his knowledge in physical combat was almost unparalleled. What Naruto had managed to do was impossible.

Between one moment and the next, he had somehow altered the speed of a committed attack, specifically somehow managing to strike faster. Such a thing was impossible solely by muscular power or chakra reinforcement to a limb, not without hyper extending or otherwise dangerously straining a limb. People had torn muscles attempting something like that.

Another odd thing had been the angle at which the blow had struck.

The palm strike had initially been on a curved path towards it's target, the natural motion of the majority of punches, even if they looked to straight, it was just the way the body naturally moved. Naruto's palm, however, when it had somehow been accelerated, had moved in a straight line without a single jot of a curve, at tremendous speed.

Gai could definitely understand the youthful Kiba's coughing and hacking in that case. Such a powerful blow imparted to just about anyone would have the same results.

But still, the way the young boy had performed the palm strike...

"Neji-kun," he addressed his student, "was that strike..."

"It was a hand seal as well." The Hyuuga promptly replied, his active Byakugan blazing as he watched the match.

Gai nodded and turned back to the match, where the Inuzuka was now beginning to recover. Naruto, however, instead of capitalising on his opponents current weakness, had remained where he had performed the strike, waiting for his opponent to rise.

Not a good move in actual combat, but respectful in spars.

Gai could only hope that the Uzumaki didn't come regret it.

* * *

><p>"Whoa," said a wide eyed Ino Yamanaka as she watched the results of the Uzumaki's last strike, "When the hell did the moron get that strong?"<p>

_'And that hot!' _Her mind whispered hotly as she traced the exposed and ripped form of Naruto's torso. Each muscle superbly defined and effortlessly showing their power. He might be a bit on the short side, but Ino had a feeling that Naruto would grow into himself there.

In body alone, he would be considered quite the catch now. When he grew a bit taller and if he kept his current musculature...

Ino blushed as certain fantasies played through her mind. Fantasies that generally involved herself, Sasuke-kun and a distinct lack of clothing. Except this time, Sasuke was rather conspicuously absent and the Uchiha's male team mate was there instead.

* * *

><p>"Shit," winced Inoichi Yamanaka as he watched the large screen in front of him and the rest of the clan heads of Konoha in a room of the Hokage Tower, viewing the preceding preliminaries, "That looked like it hurt."<p>

"Agreed," rumbled his large rotund teammate, Chouza Akimichi.

A bark of laughter erupted from the other side of the room, making both of the previous speakers glance at the source in surprise. Laughing at the pain of one's own kin wasn't something they expected.

"The pup's had worse," snorted Tsume Inuzuka, a fanged smirk on her lips, "he'll be fine."

Her amber eyes then glinted ferally, enhanced by the darkening and wicked smirk that crossed her fang marked cheeks.

"Things are just getting started."

* * *

><p>Naruto frowned slightly as he waited for the Inuzuka to bring himself to his feet, subtilely moving the tingling fingers of his unburdened hand. He had used more chakra than he should have in that strike, and his muscles and tendons were giving him a warning. The snake's damn seal had shot his control to pieces, making some of his more deadly tricks unable to be safely used.<p>

In this situation, as a shinobi, he should have capitalised on his opponent's moments of weakness, just as his training screamed at him to do. However another part of him, a deeper part of him, wanted his opponent to show his full strength, to bring all his might to bear on the battle so that the whiskered boy could clash with it, to fight it, to defeat it utterly. Leaving no doubt that he was strong, that he wasn't the weak dead last they mostly saw him as.

He had enough of being forced under their heel, it was time for him to burst from the shell they sought to trap him in, to shatter their expectations and show himself to be worthy of more than the scorn he received from them every hour of every day.

"C'mon Kibble Breath," he taunted his foe, as he rose to his feet, Kiba's little canine partner at his master's heel, "I _know _your stronger than this. Bring your best or I'll leave you in the dust."

"Shut up," the Inuzuka snarled and coughed, still barely having enough breath to say that. The dog user glanced down at his partner, "Akamaru." The word was a question and an order all at once.

The dog barked and Kiba flicked something red at the dog, who immediately swallowed it.

"Giving your dog drugs now are you?" Questioned the jinchuuriki, raising a golden eyebrow as he set the shield once more, raising it so his arm looked like a metal crab's claw, the shield's point gleaming.

The dog and boy partnership ignored his taunting query. Akamaru's fur suddenly began to bristle and a low growl came from his throat, sounding deeper than it should be from such a small creature. Naruto narrowed his eyes fractionally as he faintly sensed a primal feeling of menace, of a predator, from the hound. The white dog's eyes also gleamed with power and the fur slowly darkened, starting from the muzzle and flowing backward to the tail.

It was like blood spread over the dog, the red colour spreading through out the fur.

'Akamaru, huh?' Naruto thought amusedly at the now bloody scarlet furred pooch. 'How appropriate.'

The human part the of the duo, after dropping the pill to his hound, had not been idle. His had was now in the familiar shape of the Tiger seal, a slight presence charging the air around him, an indication that a jutsu of some type was about to be performed.

"**Giju Ninpou: Shikyaku no Jutsu**," the Inuzuka growled.

The Genin immediately fell onto all fours, growling lowly. Naruto easily saw the dog user's hair grow more spiky and rough, like a beast. His canine teeth, already longer than normal, also grew slightly. His fingernails became thicker, darker, sharper and more robust, like actual claws. Behind the clothing, Naruto could also see various muscles tense and bulge, becoming more than they were.

However, despite these distinct physical changes, what drew more Naruto's attention was the light in the dog user's eyes.

They seemed to have lost a degree of humanity, of thought, replacing it with the piercing gleam of a predator that has found it's prey, instincts to fight and, perhaps, even kill coming to the fore. Naruto knew he would have to be a little more careful against the canine like Genin. Instincts were powerful forces and to be treated with caution. The second you thought you were able to control your instincts was the exact moment that you lost that hold.

You could only guide your instincts, not control them.

It seemed that the now feral looking Inuzuka wasn't done yet.

Without an audible word to the red furred animal, Akamaru leapt onto his master's back as said master went through a series of hand seals.

"**Giju Ninpou: Juujin Bunshin no Jutsu**," Kiba growled, his voice rough and hoarse, like it came from a throat that was most definitely not human.

A burst of chakra smoke immediately covered the canine duo, hiding them from view for a moment, before the veil of smoke was then roughly torn away as two figures burst out of the smoke at great speed, each one a mirror image of the other.

The two forms of the feral Kiba, one of which Naruto knew to be Akamaru if the name of the jutsu meant anything, ran on all fours toward him, one circling in from the left and the other from the right, the classic pincer move in action.

Naruto grinned slightly to himself as he readied to move, his eyes burning with delight at the challenge this would represent.

* * *

><p>The Pack moved as one.<p>

The Alpha moved swiftly towards their golden furred foe, claws at the ready to rip and tear, while the Red-One moved to strike their prey when it was occupied with the Alpha.

No thoughts were needed. No words to be said. Each one knew the Heart of the other. This would be all that was needed for the Pack to triumph.

* * *

><p>They were faster than Naruto had initially thought.<p>

One had been just a little ahead of the other and immediately pounced toward him, claws bared.

The natural armaments were met with a bulwark of steel, the shield easily blocking the strike. And the next. And the next. Each of them coming at blistering speed and with impressive force. But, just by shifting the defensive arm minutely, taking the blows cleanly on the face of the shield, he was able to defend.

Then the second hound like warrior came in.

The first had come in high, forcing him to lift the shield upwards. The second came on low, aiming for his legs, no doubt to possibly hamstring him like the wolves of old. He was preoccupied with the attacks of the other one and, as such, he wouldn't be able to defend from that angle.

He wasn't having any of that.

His free hand contorted into a familiar gesture, at least to him, and his chakra surged, rising invisibly, at least to many, into the air, as if reaching for low slung stars.

Then, like a puppet on a string, he was pulled into the air, bursting upwards without even using his legs and throwing his initial attacker away like he was a ragdoll and evading the claws of the other one, who then collided with his identical image, sending them tumbling.

* * *

><p>"What the heck was that?" Questioned Kankurou, his painted face set in a frown, "it looked like blondie was yanked up like one of my puppets when I first started training."<p>

"Chakra strings maybe?" Said a thoughtful Temari, idly tapping her large battle fan as her eyes narrowed in thought as she tried to dissect what had happened.

"No," the ghastly voice of their younger brother said, making them stiffen slightly. Even his voice evoked fear in them.

Those eyes of cool green watched the match, the formerly yanked up form now dropping, the odd shield swiping. "It is something else."

* * *

><p>Naruto landed lightly on his bare feet as he dropped from the air he had pulled himself up into.<p>

He readied himself to charge the tangled ball of man and beast, only to pull back sharply.

The tangled ball had not been tangled and confused at all.

The first warrior, who had looked to tackled on to his back, boosted the second one over himself with soft, but firm, set of feet to the ribs, throwing the second in a controlled manner over him, letting the previously airborne warrior land easily on his feet, a snarl on his lips, his muscles tensed and chakra burning brightly in his eyes.

The first warrior smoothly rolled sideways onto all fours, his chakra also burning brightly.

"Now, Akamaru!" That one called to the second one, the speaker identifying himself.

Then they came like a whirlwind.

Surprised as he was at their swift recovery, he was even more shocked at the charging attack they did next.

They ran forwards, each on all fours, one just behind the other, their eyes intent on his form.

Then the true attack began.

At a set distance away, they both pounced toward him, gleaming claws extended and then started to rotate like a drill, faster and faster, until they both looked like nothing more than horizontal tornados.

And both were aimed at him.

"**Gatsuuga**!" He heard from within those twin tornadoes.

In the brief amount of time before they could reach his position, he instantly knew he was in a spot of bother. There was no way his shield could defend against both. Due to the way it was produced, he was banking that even just one of those attacks would grind through it and his body was a little strained from the use of his unique movement technique, so he couldn't outright evade it unless he wished to have more damage added to his body.

The use for the shield had now ended, it was time to let it go and grasp something more fitting. Still, he would let this wonderful weapon go out with a bang.

He set himself, his chakra grasping the floor tiles tightly, and put his shoulder to the back of the shield, ready to take the attack.

* * *

><p>"That idiot," Sakura breathed in disbelief as he saw her teammate stand his ground in the face of the roaring grills created by the canine duo, the blonde's shield raised and firmed. "He's going to tank it!"<p>

* * *

><p>The Pack focused on their enemy, barreling through the air with their claws leading, a move taught to them by the elders of the Great Pack, passed on to the other smaller Packs.<p>

The enemy's scent was easy to find, unique, powerful and carrying the slightest amount of a fox like scent, one that they both didn't understand. They had run with their gold furred enemy as allies before, leaving that wooden building of pulped wood, wet ashes and chalk in times past, but they could never understand why the gold furred male had a fox scent to him. Their Alphas had been evasive upon being asked about it, saying that they would know in time but to not look deeper into it. They had obeyed.

That unique scent, so very different from many other two-leggers, just made him easier to target as they both drilled through the very air.

The Pack shared a flicker of hungry amusement as they saw that their enemy had simpler braced himself, locking the odd shield in front of him. Foolish pup. They were stronger in this form and the Fang they were using was able bore holes in a stone wall. An inch thick, at best, shield would be child's play.

The Human part of the Pack lead first, just in front of Red-Fur. Human would strike the metal shell of the enemy first, while Red-Fur would loop around and attack from the flank, a tried and true technique. It had almost never failed before, and the Pack bet heavily that it wouldn't now.

Within moments of the inevitable clash, Red-Fur turned off slightly, altering his course to a few meter to the side and back of the foe, while the Human barreled on, just about to clash with the false iron shell.

Red-Fur, in mid-turn, froze as he felt a spike of chakra wafting into his nose. A spike that came from the calm faced enemy the Pack was fighting.

His danger senses blared and he frantically tried to communicate across the Heart with Kiba-Human. But it was too late.

Just before Kiba-Human's spinning claws could touch the false iron shell, the dark orb in the centre suddenly lit up fiercely and a series of cracks spidered rapidly across it's surface and even on to the false shell proper, until the reached the very edge, looking like a several earthquakes had created fissures in the surface. All this took place in fractions of a moment.

"**Tama**:" Red-Fur heard the gold furred human intone, his eyes unflinching as Kiba-Human's technique was just brushing his only line of defence, "**Shitsuren**."

Then the world exploded.

* * *

><p>Exclamations echoed out as all on the balcony were blinded and staggered by the powerful explosion that had shaken the walls and the very foundations of the tower.<p>

"What the hell?!" Cried Anko from where she stood beside the form of her Hokage, her face shocked, "Did the brat just blow himself up just to defeat the other brat?!"

"I don't know," the Hokage said grimly, his face tight and teeth clenched firmly around the mouthpiece of his pipe. "But we will find out soon enough."

_'What on earth was Naruto thinking?' _Fiercely thought Hiruzen Sartutobi, '_To use such an explosive technique, at such close range, was veritable suicide! Yet...' _The old shinobi's eyes narrowed as he remembered the calm expression on the boy's face before the chamber was rocked with the blast of light and sound and force. There was a resolve there, in those whiskered features, but not the resolve of one who was sacrificing their life to complete a certain objective. There was something else at work, some sort of plan in the blonde's head, and that was what was keeping him from worrying deeper than he already was.

Hopefully, when the dust and smoke cleared, the situation would be on the good side for all the combatants involved.

Unfortunately, it seemed to be that many of the others that watched on didn't share his observations.

* * *

><p>"Kiba!" Yelled Team Eight, the present members of Team Seven not far behind in their calls for Naruto.<p>

"What the hell have you been teaching him, Kakashi!?" Kurenai said with an unfamiliar snarl on her beautiful face and her red eyes practically glowing with wrath at the possibility of her student being dead at the hands of someone who, by all accounts, should be a comrade in arms.

"I certainly didn't teach him that, Kurenai," Kakashi snapped back, his Sharigan now exposed as he tried to see through the dust, "Nor did I teach him such tactics. This was all him." He growled slightly in frustration. "Damn it! The chakra residue from that explosion is veiling my sight." The grey haired jounin glanced over to the form of Neji Hyuuga, "Hyuuga-san, can you-?"

"I can't quite make out what is in there either," the Hyuuga informed the jounin promptly, "as you commented on yourself, the chakra residue is heavy and confusing." He glanced over at the teachers of both Seven and Eight. "That said, I can make out three human life signatures down below."

The forms of both teachers relaxed slightly, a line of tension in their shoulders fading as they heard that their students are, if not uninjured, were at least alive. Considering the force of that explosion, they would take what they could get in that regard.

Still, the entire scenario brought up more than a few questions. One of the lesser ones being...

"What the heck caused that explosion anyway?" Queried Ino as she kept scanning the still thick dust cloud, "I didn't know that Uzumaki was packing that much heat."

"This is Naruto we are talking about, Ino," drawled an, for a change, wide awake and alert form of Shikamaru, his own dark eyes scanning and calculating, "if there was one thing that could define that hyperactive knucklehead: it's unpredictable."

As if on cue, anyone with a modicum of sensory talent felt a massive burst of chakra from the stone arena below, encompassing the entire area. If one was familiar with the feeling of it, they could have easily told anyone who was responsible for the burst.

* * *

><p>Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at the heavy chakra burst from his surrogate grandson, wondering why he had used such a large amount, or why he had spread it so wide and far.<p>

Then, much to his surprise, his eyes beheld a spectacle that had him questioning what he really knew about the young man.

* * *

><p>The spectacle was sight to see. The softly glowing motes dancing in the light with an orchestrated dance, spinning and wheeling around while growing ever closer, packing ever tighter. It was...<p>

"Beautiful," breathed Hinata as she watched the dust cloud seem to gather together, forming a spinning maelstrom that plunged into a funnel directly over the middle of the arena, clearing the air as it did so.

Like water swirling down a sink, the gathered and still gathering dust, thick and glowing like stars in a galaxy, spiralled down towards the floor where it's conductor stood calmly, blonde hair ruffled and skin slightly scuffed but otherwise unharmed with his two hands in a seal and the dust, like a pile of blue stars, gathered in front of him, shifting and fusing together.

"Naruto-kun," she said, with eyes wide in shock at her crush, feeling relief that he looked to relatively unharmed, if a little tired judging by the sweat that covered his form and the slightly laboured breathing.

Her eyes also sought out her crush's opponent, her hound dog of a teammate, and couldn't help but wince and gasp lightly.

The canine Genin was planted firmly in the walls of the arena, cracks in the stone spidering around him. He hung there, his clothes tattered and charred and his slightly gashed forehead bleeding over his drooped forward face, dripping to the floor below him.

He was clearly out of it and wasn't going to be moving any time soon.

The small form of his canine partner Akamaru, now returned to his normal puppy sized form, also rested against a wall, on his side and clearly unconscious.

Seeing this, Hinata knew that there could only be one result for this match.

"This match is over," called the sickly looking proctor, his eyes looking slightly dazed and his knees wavering, obviously having been affected somewhat by the explosion. "The winner is Naruto Uzumaki of the Leaf."

Naruto seemed to relax at those words, a wide smile crossing his features as he released his hands from the seal they had been holding moments before, letting the rest of the still as yet gathering dust to fall around him like a curtain, still retaining that glow of chakra.

And, for but a moment, for a brief flicker of time, transparent and faint like a mirage, Hinata thought she saw something, something strange. She felt like her mind was transported elsewhere even as her body remained still, and the world seemed to shift and swirl around her as she gazed at Naruto.

Behind her beaming crush, not that he knew that, she thought she saw a great sword - no, hundreds of swords and spears and other weapons, of many different makes and from many different eras. Ones that looked to be mere mundane and paltry. Others beautified by gold and jewels. Still others seemed to be too perfect, too alien, to be real and each of them gave off a different presence, as if there was more to them than the steel shell that encapsulated them.

And each of these weapons, these armours, these shields and so many other armaments of war, laid strewn haphazardly on a sloping hill, a red setting sun casting light from the background, casting long shadows from the arms piercing the earth.

It was a beautiful, if stark, sight. The remnant of a battlefield's aftermath, the bodies of the fallen long since disappeared leaving only their steel to remain.

And atop that hill, at the very peak of that slope, she saw a Man-Who-Was-Legion. A dark silhouette that's form was indistinct, changing and rippling every moment, leaving only those eyes of blue steel to untouched. Around the figure shadows flowed, becoming men that stood behind him, numbering even unto thousands, or weapons, dark shadows of ones that littered the small hill, that hovered at his side, ready to be wielded in those shifting hands or cast toward his enemies as missiles of destruction.

For but a moment in this moment, her confusion vanished as she looked in those eyes of blue fire and cobalt steel from afar. This Man-Who-Was-Legion was something else. Something ephemeral and fleeting, yet real and hard. A phantom who had become flesh, a shadow that was forged into steel...

And then the sight vanished, the real world suddenly asserting itself once more and making her stumble briefly backwards, her shocked mind trying desperately to comprehend what she had just seen.

Her mind remained too numb and confused at what had taken her senses for her to even acknowledge her crush's leaving of the arena, victorious and triumphant.

She barely heard her name called to fight, matched against her cousin, and simply followed the request of the proctor to enter the ring, ignoring the warnings of her teammates. Her mind was only one thing, at least until she was finally facing her cousin.

'_What was that? What was that place, that world?'_

_'And what did it have to do with Naruto-kun?'_

* * *

><p><strong><em>Well folks, how did you enjoy this new one just close to New Years?<em>**

**_This one will be a bit different from my normal fare. A non-crossover that, nonetheless. draws from other anime for inspiration in abilities._**

**_The premise behind it is the natural extrapolation of the Henge and the others of the Academy jutsu. some stories have taken that Naruto's Henge is different from others, creating a physical effect, and that normal use of Henge was merely an Illusory shell over one's form. I disagree. Look at Akamaru's Transformation, he clearly uses Henge and actually physically changes. That said, I have Naruto discover the possible applications of applying Henge to physical objects, Altering their properties via chakra, like Alteration from the Type-Moon franchises. To me, the Henge is rather poorly used, in my opinion, and I am going to have Naruto base many of his techniques from his investigations into the base principles of the Academy jutsu and their mechanics._**

**_I can guarantee that this Naruto will be badass, with time. _**

**_PS You can probably all guess where I might have got inspiration for Naruto's possible eventual skill set but, rest assured, while he will have elements of that person, he will also have a degree of uniqueness to him._**

**_Glossary_**

**Tama: Tate - Ball: Shield**

**Tama: Shitsuren - Ball: Heartbreak**

**As always please leave a review,**

**kujikiri21**


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